The above image shows the notes that I made in the Crit that we had yesterday – which was extremely helpful, productive and affirming for me.
Crits are an area that I felt that I have really grown in this year – I feel much more confident in showing my work, allowing people to comment on it without interrupting, and enjoy hearing their feedback – I think partly (at least) because I feel much more self assured with my work this year – I am very passionate about my project and feel secure and comfortable with my artistic ability – so Crits are a really good chance for me to see other people’s views and understandings of my work, and find areas to improve.
There is a lot that I took from the crit, but these are the main points that I will be thinking about:
- Not having a background highlights the plant and the message that I am trying to convey – success.
- The botanical labels are “confident” and say to the viewers to come and look at the work. However people were linking this to natural history museums rather than botanical gardens (bad thing – not sure!?). They also contextualise the works and link to nature as a whole. They make you want to find out more! :)
- ISSUES WITH QR CODES – I am going to have to change how I make these _ I may have to leave a white border around them to make them easier to scan, as they do not always bring the right page up.
- The mistakes become a part of the work and makes it seem more human and less artificial. The flaws also highlight the link to the endangerment of the plant.
- The works are aligned with my activism, but it is a much more subtle and engaging activism than people are used to when tackling the topic of extinction – makes it more palatable?
- Size – would having them all a uniform size link and situate them more in an archive sense? Or does it make them more engaging and interesting to have them different sizes? (Also leaves in the element of them being drawn to scale)
- Framing and presentation.
There is definitely a lot new that I took from the crit yesterday – much that hadn’t been brought up before and some which I hadn’t thought of either, which is really useful, and I will definitely be working through these points in the next few weeks, as my work progresses.
